Staten Island cabbie who groped female passenger due for deportation

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A former Staten Island livery cab driver was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail for groping a female passenger 12 years ago, paving the way for deportation to his homeland.

Pakistani native Ghulam Khawaja pleaded guilty two weeks ago in state Supreme Court, St. George, to felony counts of attempted first-degree sexual abuse and bail-jumping -- three weeks after he was extradited to the borough from a Pennsylvania prison to answer those charges.

Former Staten Island cabbie Ghulam Khawaja faces deportation

A spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan said deportation proceedings are expected to begin now that Khawaja has been sentenced.

Prosecutors said Khawaja "repeatedly" groped a 20-year-old female passenger in his cab on May 24, 1998. Court papers state that he grabbed the woman's upper thigh after telling her, "You're beautiful, drive around with me."

The cab was en route to Sunnyside from Stapleton.

When the woman rejected his advances, Khawaja used a master switch to lock the vehicle doors despite the woman's plea to be let out. She escaped when Khawaja unlocked the doors to take another call, said William J. Smith, Donovan's spokesman.

The victim was able to call police and identified Khawaja at the offices of his then-employer, New Clifton Car Service.

The defendant, then living in the Bronx, was indicted in June 1998 on a felony charge of attempted sexual abuse and a misdemeanor count of unlawful imprisonment.

Khawaja was released on his own recognizance after his arraignment in state Supreme Court, St. George, and ordered back to court on Oct. 28 of that year, said Smith

He failed to appear and was indicted in February 1999 for felony bail-jumping

Khawaja fled to Canada, then to Pittsburgh, where he worked in a convenience store. But after his arrest last year on drug charges, Pennsylvania authorities determined he was wanted on Staten Island for jumping bail. He was later convicted of the drug crimes.

Arrangements were made last month to return Khawaja to the borough and begin court proceedings against him here.

Khawaja was sentenced yesterday to a year in jail for each of the two convictions on Staten Island. The sentences will run concurrently with each other and a term of one and a half to four years the defendant is serving in the Keystone State on the drug conviction.

He must register with New York state authorities as a sexual offender.